A coalition of 20 Democratic attorneys general sued the Trump administration Thursday to block implementation of a rule they argue will undermine the ACA. The complaint was co-led by California, Massachusetts and New Jersey and filed in federal court in Massachusetts. The lawsuit alleges that HHS illegally made changes to the health law, which will make it harder for people to enroll and will shift costs to states.
ICE officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States. The information will give ICE officials the ability to find 'the location of aliens' across the country, says the agreement signed Monday between CMS and the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement has not been announced publicly.
Health insurance premiums are going way up next year for people who buy their insurance on Healthcare.gov or the state-based marketplaces, according to an analysis out Friday. The average person who buys ACA insurance will be paying 75% more for their premium, according to the analysis from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.
CVS Health has secured a major healthcare deal, winning a multi-year pharmacy benefits contract with CalPERS, outbidding rival UnitedHealth. The deal marks a significant win for CVS's Caremark unit and could shift competitive dynamics in the pharmacy benefits management market.
The Trump administration is opening the floodgates for more surgeries to be done in outpatient facilities like ambulatory surgery centers, proposing a Medicare policy that could accelerate the shift away from hospital-based care. The administration is aiming to scrap Medicare’s list of 1,700 procedures that the program will only pay for in inpatient settings. Medicare officials unveiled their decision to eliminate the so-called inpatient only list in a proposed rule on Tuesday, reprising an effort from the first Trump administration.
The Trump administration plans to claw back $7.8 billion in Medicare payments to hospitals a decade sooner than originally proposed, potentially sparking another legal challenge from the hospital industry. CMS also intends to send surveys to hospitals asking what their drug costs are, which could set the stage for the Trump administration to attempt to cut hospital drug payments again.